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Similar to Roméo and Juliet, the Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese legend of a tragic love story of a pair of lovers, Liang Shanbo (æ¢å±±ä¼¯) and Zhu Yingtai (ç¥è‹±è‡º), whose names form the title of the story. The title is often abbreviated to Liang Zhu (æ¢ç¥).
Testimonial: “ This piece of lovely music began as a humble attempt of two music students to present Chinese musical aesthetic through a Western format. The original scores were for a western orchestra, the solo instrument being the violin.......The opera was in turn an interpretation of a famous Chinese folklore about two lovers, whose yearning for one another, not being fulfilled in life time, was redeemed by reincarnating as a pair of butterfly dancing above the grave they shared.
The music was probably the most successful collaboration between two budding young musicians, with one building the violin solo part while the other filling in with orchestral instruments. The result turned out to be an astounding piece of music that has been loved ever since, and universally
Since the concerto was released in 1959, attempts to play the solo part with erhu were not lacking because of the desire to harness the unique “story-telling” quality of the instrument. But there is a technical hurdle – it requires superb skill on the erhu player’s part to convincingly play the notes that a violin is capable of. If the music is already difficult for violin, it is almost impossible for erhu.
This performer, Sun Feng, is marvelous. Also impressive is the fact that the entire orchestra is replaced with Chinese musical instruments (almost). The sound is irrefutably pleasing and powerful.......”
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